CVS

July 21, 2014

Using a computer for long periods of time may cause negative effects such as headaches, blurred vision, eye strain, dry eyes, irritated eyes, polyopia (multiple vision), and difficulty refocusing the eyes but NOT cancer. The negative effects are symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS).

Source

I remember my mom telling me a technique to avert these bad effects, something about looking at trees outside or far objects for at least 20 seconds to relax the eyes. For people who want to prevent or lessen the symptoms, such as me (a heavy computer user), the rule my mom was talking about was the 20-20-20 RULE. 20 Minutes, 20 Feet, 20 seconds. What. What is it, you might ask. 

For all you heavy computer uses. 

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Prominent Companies Part 2

July 14, 2014

Yahoo! was very famous for it's product - YAHOO MESSENGER - before. I still remember the days when the first thing that I'll do after booting our computer or laptop was to open the messenger. It used to have the best chat service before Facebook Chat was introduced. 

Now, I just use Yahoo! for it's email service. R.I.P messenger.

Tried  to see if there were still people using the yahoo messenger.

*Just FYI. Why Yahoo! (with the exclamation point)???*

" At that time "Yahoo" was already trademarked by a company that produced barbecue sauce, knives and human propelled watercraft. For this reason Yang and Filo added the exclamation point to the end of Yahoo!"

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One reason why I am hating Apple right now is they tend to forget about the processor limit and capability of their past products when they release new iOS software. For example, my iPod Touch 4th Gen (even for other people). When it was on iOS 4, it performed smoothly. But when I updated it to the latest software available (iOS 6), it crashes A LOT. Before, I can use my iPod for games and social apps but now since it can't handle anything (even when I'm only using Safari), I only use it as an mp3 player. Back to its original purpose. It's like they do it on purpose so you'll have the urge to throw away your gadget and buy their new product.

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Prominent Companies Part 1

July 9, 2014

Microsoft is one of the largest and most valuable company that develops computer software and personal computers. It's operating system - WINDOWS - is still the most popular operating system being used today. It is widely-supported and user-friendly. 

I think that Windows is the best OS for gaming and for business because there are a lot of software and games that are compatible with it. Why? 

"When Bill Gates started to develop Windows he made the software information free to developers of software. Steve Jobs at Apple sold the OS software information. So, most software developers decided to make software just for Windows OS since it didn't cost anything. " - Terry Scott

Maybe Microsoft  wasn't trying to monopolize the computer industry, they just like to share. Maybe.

Google started off simply as a search engine. But since then, it has bought a lot of companies such as Blogger, YouTube, Android and has already developed a lot of os, apps and gadgets.  They're even developing a self-driving car now. Define AWESOME. 

 

Oh but wait, look at the list of what companies  Google purchased on December 2013:

• Schaft Inc, a humanoid robots company
• Industrial Perception, computer vision systems and robot arms for loading and unloading trucks
• Redwood Robotics, a robotic arms company
• Meka Robotics, a humanoid robotics company
• Holomni, a robotic wheels company
• Bot & Dolly,  a robotic camera company
• Autofuss, an ad and design company
• Boston Dynamics, a military and industrial  robot company

Google trying to create an army of robots to take over the world? Nah. I don't think so. 

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System Analyst

July 2, 2014

As we have discussed, it professionals tackle wide range of jobs. For Information Systems graduates, they would most likely become system analysts.

What does a System Analyst do??

A systems analyst is an IT professional who specializes in analyzing, designing and implementing information systems solutions to help an organization operate more efficiently and effectively.

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I think that system analysts should be critical thinkers so that they would come up with great solutions to problems that their companies would encounter. Honestly, I want to become an analyst than to become a coder because some analysts have their partners (coders) to create the codes to finish the work faster. If that's the case, I can get away with the code making part. But it is important for a system analyst  to be great programmer also so no getting away with codes!

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Software

June 30, 2014

We discussed the last steps in making a program - Compile, Test and Debug the program. 

Compile is the time we put our source codes in our chosen IDE.

Test is when we run our codes to see if they work. In Netbeans, I always try to make sure to test as many variables that I can, just to make sure that my codes really work. Better be safe than sorry!

Debugging  is to find and fix errors and problems in the codes. It is a hard task because as said in class, we'll never get away from bugs. I think it's true. I noticed that many apps released for our smartphones are provided with "updates" by their creators. These updates are done usually to fix bugs/glitches that occur and to add features.

Look at below, "Bug fixes and improvements"

After learning the processes, I've concluded that work of a programmer is very exhausting!
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Oh and when using software, I try my best to find freewares instead of paid ones. Whenever I need a paid software/app, I try my best to search cracked versions online just like my MS Office 2013.

I salute programmers who make freewares. After all the stress and hard work they've gone through to create their programs (we all know it is not easy), they share them for free. WOW. So I guess, there are still things you can get for free. 

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Programming Process

June 25, 2014

        Before we could create an excellent program, there are important steps that we should remember. I noticed that they are similar with the scientific method.

So yeah, first we need to understand the problem / observation and it is not an easy task. Most problems need serious thinking to be able to grasp it and not all the time we would be able to understand them. Think. Think. Think.

Second is to create an algorithms / create hypothesis that will solve the problem. Pseudo codes and Flowcharts. Writing and taking notes of steps is great so that we wouldn't forget them and we could arrange them in right sequence. When we were tasked to create flowcharts for in 4th year, it took me a long time to finish because I got confused by the different shapes to be used. I asked myself, "Why not just list down the steps? Bullet form would be best." Pseudo code is better, in my opinion.

Third, convert the algorithm to programming language / experiment. This would be the time to use an IDE (such as Lazarus, NetBeans, and Eclipse) to input the codes. Right now, I'm using NetBeans because it is the one our professor in IntPrg told us to use. I don't memorize all java keywords (there are a lot), so sometimes I commit lexical errors and make up my own words.

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*It is a programmer's task to make a user's life as easy as possible while he has a hard time creating programs. Haha. How sad.

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Programming Language

June 23, 2014
                

             Computers have their own languages, called programming languages. There are a lot. Just like us humans, we use different languages. As a BS-INSYS student, it is part of my job to learn some of the computers' languages. Oh life. As we've discussed, there are three (3) levels of programming language: Low level (ex. machine), Middle level (ex. assembly), High level. 

  

          Since I'm a beginner in programming, I've only used Visual Basic in 4th year high school and only started learning Java in IntroProg,  I'm going to study the High level since it is the closest to human language among the three. 

        *Actually, in high school we didn't really study Visual Basic well. Most of us "Copy-Pasted" codes from the internet because we wanted to finish ahead of time to play Counter Strike or DOTA. YEAH, our school computers have games installed on them and we were allowed to play them if we have finished our work. Hooray! HAHA.

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           We also talked about artificial intelligence and we all know that it isn't quite perfect yet. Like Siri, it's voice recognition is still buggy and it still doesn't know a lot. Unlike with Samantha, the OS in the future with AI from the movie Her, it's like you're talking with a real smart person. Oh, which I've realized is kind of creepy. 

Siri's trying to change the subject :(

I guess I should follow the 3rd important rule when giving instruction to a program:

1. Instructions have to be complete.

2. Instructions should be in correct sequence.

3. Instructions should be in programming language. 

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